Buck Rogers, the classic pulp hero, is returning to television thanks to Legendary with Brian K. Vaughan writing.
The show is part of Legendary’s multi-platform and multi-medium approach to the character, which is being developed concurrently with a feature film and anime series. Buck Rogers first appeared in a story titled Armageddon 2419 and published in a 1928 issue of pulp mainstay, Amazing Stories. Written by Philip Francis Nowlan, the story told of a man who is trapped in a coal mine during a cave-in, falls into suspended animation, and Rip Van Winkle-style, wakes up almost 500 years into the future. There, he is enlisted to help fight a war between several gangs in what was once America.
The adventures of the character was then turned into a comic strip, simply titled Buck Rogers, in 1929 by the John F. Dille Co. Following the beginning of the comic strip, the character’s popularity exploded across the country expanding into toys, radio plays, comic books and a movie serial starring Buster Crabbe. Then in 1979, NBC produced a short-lived but fondly-remembered series titled Buck Rogers in the 25th Century starring Gil Gerard and Erin Gray and introduced a robot sidekick named Twiki and a talking computer named Dr. Theopolis.
Vaughan is best known for his series Y: The Last Man, a world without men, and Saga, a sci-fi fantasy about two parents trying to keep their baby safe amid a galactic war-winning Eisner and Harvey Awards. Other critically adored works from Vaughan include Ex Machina, Paper Girls, and Marvel’s Runaways.